What this means is that startups raising money can advertise their funding rounds and encourage private investments from just about anyone, not just accredited venture capitalists.* This legitimizes crowd-funding platforms like Kickstarter, as well as lowering the barriers to entry for a notoriously clubby industry.

Other soothsayers (a.k.a. analysts and policy-makers), of course, are already predicting what sort of disruptions this new open-door policy will incur. TechCrunch predicts a rise of investor match-making sites. State regulators, particularly in the South, have denounced the 4-1 ruling as a dangerous legalization of scandal and dubious high-risk ventures.